* Metuh, (middle)


 Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja will Wednesday, January 24 determine whether to revoke the bail granted  the embattled former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  Mr Olisah Metuh, and confine him to prison or not.
 Metuh and his firm, Destra Investment Ltd, standing trial on seven counts charges including allegations of money laundering and illegally receiving the sum of N400million from the Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA) in 2014, without executing any contract, was absent Tuesday when his case came up for hearing. 
At the resumed  hearing,  the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) asked the Court to revoke bail Metuh’s bail and commit him to prison.

 Counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, in  an oral application urged Justice  Abang  to revoke Metuh’s bail and confine him  to prison and make him attend his trial from the jail.

 He faulted the medical report sent to the court indicating that the defendant was on admission for treatment for an ailment, arguing  that the medical report, which has no verifying affidavit and documents making reference to the matter pending in court, should be seen as a trash and treated as such.

 “Having regard to the absence of the first defendant from court yesterday and today for inexplicable reasons and also having regard to the fact that he is enjoying the bail of this court and has taken steps to undermine and jeopardise the full objectives the full purpose of bail in the administration of criminal justice, the prosecution is constrained to apply for the revocation of the bail of the first defendant pursuant to sections 173(b) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and section 169 of the same Act”

 Earlier, counsel to Metuh, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN, had informed the court that his client  had been on admission at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State. 

 He served the court with a letter dated January 21, 2018, signed by one Dr. O.C. Ekwegwu on behalf of the hospital indicating that Metuh was on admission.

Ikpeazu, reacting to the prosecutions applications for revocation of bail, prayed the court to dismiss it. He further reiterated that the Court should dismiss  the invitation to order investigation into the veracity of the letter. “The letter is not attached to an affidavit. How will the prosecution investigate the document?”

 Ikpeazu subsequently sought an adjournment and promised to bring Metuh at the next adjourned date.

 In his ruling, Justice Abang adjourned the matter to Wednesday for further arguments, in the instance of the first defendant(Metuh),  whether to continue the trial without him or not, and  for further arguments on the application of the prosecution, praying for the revocation of the defendant's bail.
The judge  further ruled that no fresh material should be presented by the parties, stressing that all arguments shall be based on the materials already before the court.